JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
Rating: 
At heart, Well To The Bone is a blues album and Scott Henderson is a blues guitarist. Honest. It was even released on the Blues Bureau International label (a sublabel of Shrapnel Records).
Well then, what is this review doing on a jazz review site? Well, Scott Henderson is also behind Tribal Tech, one of the premier fusion outfits of the last twenty years or so. He cut his teeth playing with Joe Zawinul and Gary Burton, among others.
But in the mid 90s, Henderson put out Dog Party, which was a blues album, albeit with some advanced harmonies and improvisation. Since then, he’s put out a blues album every few years, of which Well To The Bone is the most recent.
There’s always a good dose of humor in Henderson’s blues albums, and Well To The Bone is no exception. The second tune on Well To The Bone is Hillbilly In The Band, a deranged rockabilly romp complete with barking dogs.
Also typical of Henderson, Well To The Bone includes plenty of guest spots for vocalists.
Devil Boy features Wade Durham. Henderson takes it easy on Durham. The vocal lines Henderson has written are straight up pentatonic. The chord structure tune weaves a little around a typical twelve bar blues progression, but Henderson’s solo is about as traditional as it gets. When he gets back into the form of the tune, he lets loose a little.
Lola Fay is another matter. As the chords elide into each other, only the feel will remind you of blues at all. Then Thelma Houston (Whitney’s mom — now we know where she got her pipes) starts belting out a more of less straight blues line, but Scott Henderson is going nuts around her. Give Thelma Houston some credit. Most blues singers would be completely lost, but Houston makes singing around the most abstruse harmonies and rhythms sound like the most natural thing in the world.
As the album proceeds, it gets sicker and wilder. I might well be rating Well To The Bone too harshly because the intensity is pretty unrelenting. Scott Henderson’s previous blues album, Tore Down House, was more accessible, having more flat out comedy and Thelma Houston belting to sweeten the deal for casual listeners, though That’s The Way It’s Goes on Well To The Bone has a little trash talking between Houston and Wade Durham.
On Well To The Bone, Scott Henderson seems more inclined to indulge his fascination with variations of tone and/or perverting the blues as much as possible, which will probably make this release of most interest to guitarists.
Although the instrumentation on Well To The Bone is minimal — Scott Henderson on guitar, John Humphrey on bass, and Kirk Covington on drums, it sounds very full (Henderson overdubs his leads). Part of this is due to the chord voicings Henderson uses, some of which are almost pianistic. He also uses his volume knob and whammy bar liberally to add texture.
So, Well To The Bone may be a blues album, but it is a truly wacked out one. Blues or jazz purists should approach Well To The Bone with caution, but fusion or jazz fans who also have an appreciation for the blues should get a kick out of Scott Henderson’s latest blues release.